Time-Jumping Civil War Buffs Carry iPhones and Muskets at Live Reenactments

Civil War reenactments are catnip for photographers. Nowhere else do you get such strange, anachronistic visuals with all the props and costumes already in place. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people dress up in period-appropriate garb to act out bloody scenes, and then after it’s all done they sit, drink a slurpee, and get on their iPhones.

That said, when done well, we still can’t get enough of them. In their recent project Devil’s Den, photographers Eva O’Leary and Harry Griffin try to capture these strange scenes and juxtapositions. For a week they shot together at the 150th anniversary Battle of Gettysburg celebration and are currently working on a book from the event.

“At first [the reenactments] just seem so surreal,” O’Leary says. “It seems like it can’t be possible. But after a few days you actually start feeling like it’s normal. Seeing someone walking down the street dressed like it’s the 1800’s but drinking a McCafe isn’t that weird.”

The name of the project, Devil’s Den, refers to a rocky outcropping in the area where the Battle of Gettysburg took place. But it’s also a reference to a Civil War photo called “Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter.” The photo was taken by the famous Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner and showed a soldier lying dead in the Devil’s Den. The photo was later called a fake by historians who argued that Gardner moved the body there to create a more dramatic backdrop.

O’Leary and Griffin chose the name because their photos aren’t necessarily documentary. They’re not manipulated, but the compositions are more arty, and they’re often lit with a flash, which gives them a manufactured look.

“We were okay with warping the scene as we saw fit,” O’Leary says.

Most of the photos in the series feature just one person. The photographers say that was an attempt to try and mitigate the visual chaos. Instead of trying to take it all in, they wanted to find a way to highlight certain people and personalities.

Many of the actor portraits are straight-forward and quite beautiful. Other photos — principally those of spectators — do poke a little fun. That’s because O’Leary and Griffin found it strange, or at least different, that so many people would show up to watch and then buy things like Abraham Lincoln mouse pads or take Segway tours of the battlefield. They say it was hard not to find some humor in 19th century history meeting 21st century culture.

“We’re not criticizing the event, but we are commenting on the absurdity we saw around it,” O’Leary says.